Barrow's Alley

Bars (The)

These were erected at various points outside the Walls, to mark the extreme limits of the City Liberties, and consisted of posts, rails and a chain. At Temple Bar, these were afterwards replaced by a Gate.

Burnt in the Fire 1666 and rebuilt by Wren 1679. Taken down 1840-1 to make room for the new Royal Exchange and the materials sold by auction 1841, the south wall and the chapel above mentioned being reserved to be built into the Sun Fire Office. Some of the carved masonry, the old pulpit, organ, etc., were preserved in the church erected 1849-50 in Moor Lane, in the style of St. Bartholomew by the Exchange.

A Rectory. Patron : Abbot of St. Mary Graces until the Dissolution of the Monasteries temp. H. VIII., when the advowson fell to the Crown (Newcourt, I. 290).

Bartholomew (St.) Chapel, within the Hospital

See Bartholomew (St.) the Less.

Bartholomew (St.) Court

East out of Pie Corner, Giltspur Street, in Farringdon Ward Without (O. and M. 1677-Boyle, 1799).

Named after St. Bartholomew's Hospital.

Site now covered by the Hospital buildings.

Bartholomew (St.) Moor Lane

On the east side of Moor Lane north of the Metropolitan Railway. In Cripplegate Ward Without (O.S. 1880).

Consecrated April, 1850 (Denton, p.73).

Built partly out of the materials and fittings of St. Bartholomew's by the Exchange (q.v.), which had been recently taken down. The tower of the new church was a facsimile of the old one. Church taken down and the parish united to St. Giles Cripplegate, much of the parish having been swept away for the formation of the Metropolitan Railway,1862-5.

Bartholomew (St.) the Great

On the north side of Bartholomew Close, West Smithfield (P.O. Directory). In Farringdon Ward Without.

Originally the church of St. Bartholomew's Priory, West Smithfield, a portion of it was, at the Dissolution, reconstructed for a parish church to remain and be called the parish church of St. Bartholomew the Great in Westsmythfelde, and John Dean the curate was appointed the first Rector, 36 H. VIII. 1544 (L. and P. H. VIII. XIX. (i), p. 377).

In 1547 the church and hospital, etc., were granted to the Mayor and citizens (ib. XXI (2), p. 414).

The church is of Norman work, and has in parts been well preserved and restored. It consists of the choir and transepts of the monastic church, the nave having been destroyed at the Dissolution in 1539. The only portion remaining of the west facade is the gateway out of West Smithfield, giving entrance to the church. This is early 13th-century work.

The choir is Norman, commenced 1123, the clerestory Early English. The Lady Chapel 15th-century work. The church was restored in 1863-6 and again in 1885-88, when the Lady Chapel, which had been used as a fringe factory, was restored and reopened for use. One or two bays of the cloisters remain on the south side of the church. The nave extended into Smithfield. The tomb of the founder Rahere is a good specimen of Perpendicular work, but of much later date than his decease.

The exterior of the church has undergone considerable alteration, as in old days it had a central tower and two turrets (Moore, 21).

The central tower was removed and the present tower built in 1628, the porch at the west end new built 1620.

There is an interesting account of the existing church and excavations in L. and M. Arch. Soc. Trans. N.S. II. Pt. 2, pp. 212 et seq.

A Rectory. Patrons : in private hands.

See Bartholomew's (St.) Priory.

The parish comprises the site of the ancient priory and its precinct. It is interesting to note that having been at one time a monastic enclosure, there is no great thoroughfare running through the parish and several of the smaller passages were in former times closed by gates.

The origin of the foundation is set out in the monastic chartulary and is ascribed to a vision granted to Rahere the founder, in which St. Bartholomew appeared to rescue him from a winged monster, who in his dream had seized him and was about to destroy him, after which St. Bartholomew directed him to found a church in his honour in Smithfield (Cott. MS. Vesp. B. ix.).

Bartholomew (St.) the Great, Churchyard

On the western side of the church.

Shown in O. and M. 1677.

Bartholomew (St.) the Less

On the eastern side of West Smithfield, north of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, within the Hospital precincts.

Originally the chapel to Saint Bartholomew's Hospital.

As the parish church of St. Bartholomew by the Exchange was known in early records as " the Little " it is probable that early references to " St Bartholomew's the Little "refer to that church, and not to this chapel belonging to the hospital. Arnold describes it as " The chapell wythin Bartholomew Spitell," 1521 (Chron. p. 255).

In 1547, after the reconstruction of the Hospital at the Dissolution, it was ordained that the church within the site of the Hospital was to be a parish church called the church of " St. Bartholomew the Little " for all inhabitants within the site and close of the Hospital, 38 H. VIII. (L. and P. H. VIII. XIX. (1), p. 416).

Interior rebuilt 1789 and 1823. Restored 1865. Tower old.

A perpetual vicarage : Patrons : the Governors of St. Bartholomew's Hospital.

Bartholomew (St.) the Less Lane

Wm. Herewardestoke directed that he should be buried in the Church of St. Bartholomew the Less, and devised to his father a tenement in the Lane of St. Bartholomew the Less, 1366-7 (Ct. H.W. II. 99).

Other references to the lane 1308 and 1348-9 (ib. I.200, 520).

This church must be St. Bartholomew by the Exchange, which was known as "the Less" or "the Little" in early records, and the lane would be Bartholomew Lane (q.v.).

Bartholomew (St.) the Less, Churchyard

Little St. Bartholomew Churchyard is shown to the south of the Hospital in O. and M. 1677.